Idaho superintendent urges back-to-basics reading push, outlines teacher, budget and career-technical priorities

Debbie Critchfield, Idaho state superintendent of public instruction, told the House Education Committee on Jan. 23 that her office is pushing a “back to basics” strategy that prioritizes phonics-based reading instruction, essential math standards, career-technical education and changes to how state school funding is distributed.

Critchfield said Idaho has seen ‘‘8% growth in our…3rd graders for reading proficiency’’ over the past two years and described the Idaho Reading Indicator (IRI), the statewide kindergarten–3 assessment used for reading monitoring. She said about 86,000 students took the IRI last year and the statewide proficiency rate for 3rd grade is about 70%, noting that a change in how the test was normed would have produced a 75% rate under a different reference frame.

Why it matters: reading proficiency and early math fundamentals are central predictors of later academic success. Critchfield told lawmakers the state must give teachers the training and materials to teach phonics and the “science of reading,” improve mentoring…